Hey guys - thinking of dropping a crate in the 64. I would like to talk to someone who has done this on a mid-year so I can try to account for all of the little suprises that always pop up.

Any recomendations on a crate that will drop in and require minimal changes to accessories etc appreciated!


Thanks!

 

According to a magazine artilce I read about five years ago, a ZZ4 should bolt in with minimal problems. I put a ZZ430 clone in my 63 and had several small problems due to the Vortec style heads. First, it raises the intake making hood clearance a problem. Second, it works best with exhaust headers rather than stock rams horn exhausts, so customizing the exhaust system was necessary. Third, the heads would not work with stock mounting brackets for the alternator, so aftermarket brackets and pulleys were required. Fourth, the water pump was too long, so a new short pump was required. Finally, it used an electronic distributor without a mechanical tach drive. I modified my tach, but some people go to an aftermarket distributor with a mechanical tach drive. That's all I can remember for now.

 

ZZ4 comes with long shaft water pump, so I had to get "short shaft"; comes with spark plugs but no s/p wires. Electronic distributor is NOT "tach drive" (MY add'l expense for the '62). No carb or aircleaner or a/c housing

 

I put a zz383 stroker in my 66. All of the above situations occured for me as well. I had a clearence issue with headers and my steering box. I used Patriot Tight Tuck headers h8019-1 to solve the problem. Got the engine under a small block hood using an Edelbrock Vortec Performer manifold and my stock drop base air cleaner.

 

Ram Jet 350 is what I'm going with in my 64. I expect to have a clearance issue with the top of the throttle body and the inner doubler of the hood. Since my car is too far from stock I'll have no problem trimming the doubler. I'll be using stock exhaust manifolds and under-car chambered exhaust. My biggest headache was chosing which tank to use and running a new fuel supply line. The stock steel fuel line will act as the return line.

The Ram Jet comes with everything except a water pump and starter motor.

Frapps

 

from looking at various crate motors, if you go with some of the higher performance units such as the 383 strokers, etc you will find the normally come with single palne intake manifolds so you would probably want to see if the vendor can reconfigure it with a dual planie intake or figure buying one and swapping it yourself. A dual plane intake would would better for street use and usually offers better hood clearance at the same time.

the above mentioned water pump (long VS short neck - you need a short neck) and distributor are also conciderations to keep in mind.

Additionally, you mentioned your car was a '64. Are you considering a SB motor or a BB motor? A BB motor is going to have more issues to content with as the frames on the '63-'64 cars weren't configured for BB's since they weren't available in those years. '65 and up cars have an indentation in the front crossmember to allow clearance for the balancer on BB motors so chances are a BB won't drop into your '64 frame without some modifications done to it. I'm sure it's possible to make it wotk if that's what you are interested in doing but others with a lot more knowledge than myself (which isn't saying much because I basically don't know very much) would need to comment on this further. Also, if you are thinking about a BB motor than you will probably also need to upgrade your cooling system to handle it meaning a larger radiator designed for a BB motor. i'm not sure but that MAY mean also changing out the radiator core support from one from a BB car???

 

THanks for all of the info guys. I am pretty much up between the Ram Jet 350 and the ZZ383. Frapps - Did you purchase the tank and run the fuel line already? If so, what did you do for a tank? How much was it? And did you run the fuel line with the body on or off?

It sounds like you may have already read this, but here goes anyway:

http://corvettefever.com/projectbuil...ttes_projects/

 

Dennis - What are you running for a carb?